A BANNED driver was jailed yesterday for giving a friend's name when police caught him behind the wheel.

Anthony Johnson's action led to his friend Gareth Renton being prosecuted for not producing his driving documents to the police.

Mr Renton suspected that Johnson, 22, was at the wheel of the Vauxhall Astra stopped by police on Britannia Road, Stockton, on September 6 last year, and he hired a solicitor to tell Teesside Magistrates that the police had the wrong man.

The traffic officer who stopped the Astra confronted Johnson at his home on March 26 and he admitted that he was disqualified and gave his friend's details to avoid being arrested, said prosecutor Sue Jacobs.

Peter Wishlade, defending, said that Johnson's partner was weeks away from giving birth to their second child and her third.

He told Teesside Crown Court: "He tells me that he has rid himself of the addictions that in the past have blighted his life.

"He and a friend have now set up a window-cleaning round using pedal cycles for transport."

The judge Recorder Neil Davey QC told Johnson: "You have many previous convictions in respect of motoring offences and you appear before the court again for driving while disqualified and more seriously attempting to pervert the course of justice.

"By your actions a man was for a time in danger of being wrongly convicted."

Johnson of Hartington Road, Stockton, was jailed for nine months and disqualified for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and attempting to pervert the course of justice.